There's meant to be a half second gap at the start of a song isn't there?

[Hazer]

Thanks again all I went back to the engineer to fix the gap and snare and he's fine to proceed which is brilliant. I tried a little automation/ crossfade thing but sounded terrible and can't with my skills / software get anywhere near the desired result.

[Dave B]

It varies and it doesn't have to be silence. The CD will read the index for the disk and go to the correct location and play what it finds. Some systems are better than others at being able to play back instantly. On older systems, they might lose the first few milliseconds of audio, so when creating a master image for a CD, the mastering engineer will attempt to set the position for the beginning of the track ever so slightly early. Given that albums tend to have silence at the end of the tracks, this meant that you usually landed on, or very just before, your optimum point to play back which was in the 'silence' of the preceding track.

Which is a bugger if you have an album that has continuous tracks as it means that the skip point has to be ever so slightly out to compensate for older / lesser gear. Which was ok when we all had CD players, but is tedious if listening from audio files.

Ho hum

[Arpangel]

Different for an album, where the job includes the right amount of silence between consecutive tracks.. but who listens to albums nowadays (present forum excluded)

I still listen to "double albums" man.
The right amount of silence? On my albums it’s anything from 3/5 seconds between tracks, you have to cleanse your mind man, before the next track starts.

[James Perrett]

The right amount of silence? On my albums it’s anything from 3/5 seconds between tracks, you have to cleanse your mind man, before the next track starts.

You're lucky if you get a second on many of the punk albums I master - but that's the way the label like it.

On the other hand, I have one client who likes10 second gaps.

[Arpangel]

The right amount of silence? On my albums it’s anything from 3/5 seconds between tracks, you have to cleanse your mind man, before the next track starts.

You're lucky if you get a second on many of the punk albums I master - but that's the way the label like it.

On the other hand, I have one client who likes10 second gaps.

Blimey, do people still write Punk music? I thought Grime had replaced it for the angry young man of today.

[James Perrett]

Blimey, do people still write Punk music? I thought Grime had replaced it for the angry young man of today.

These are mostly recordings dating back to the late 70's (I was going to say reissues until I realised that much of it never saw the light of day in the first place) although there are still current bands playing punk.

[Guest]

CDs use timecode and move everything perfectly into place,
digital does not use that information.
if you heard the beginning with no sound would it make the song any better,.